Tim Blair

ALL THIS terrible wartime looting!

ALL THIS terrible wartime looting! And nobody is doing anything about it:

The United Nations (UN) has extended to May 31 the deadline for senior Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officials to respond to allegations that they looted diamonds and other natural resources during the four-year DRC war.

A UN official said the deadline had been extended from March 31 to give all those implicated by a UN report issued at the end of last year time to meet with the world body's investigating panel and compile their responses to the allegations.

The official, Amin Mohsen, said the UN would publish the responses of those implicated in last year's report on June 20. "There was need to give everyone a chance to dialogue with the investigating panel, exchange views and have adequate time to make detailed responses," Mohsen, the UN official assigned to the DRC, told the Financial Gazette from New York.

Give 'em the full dialogue treatment. That'll show those looters.